Printable Version of Topic

WargamerAU Forums _ Kings of War _ ORGANISING SYDNEY

Posted by: Stallandor Feb 1 2017, 10:19 AM

Hi Everyone.Queensland have thier leagues. Lord knows how thier system works, but it seems to be working.Victoria has its MikeCro. All hail Mikecro, MikeCon, and the the state of Mikecronesia

Sydney is lacking a plan and lacking numbers. Yes - its a pain in the ass of a city, but still, after Clash in Feb, there is literally nothing on the Calendar.

So I'm asking all you Kings of War gamers out there in Sydney to jump on, have a read and see if we can get some events organised. and given we want to connect to you all as much as we can, I'd love to hear any thoughts and opinions we have.

As far as I can tell at the moment, there are 3 centres for gaming. There is the Good Games store in the City, which is a good location and can cater for up to 30 players. However its a lot harder to get in there on a Sunday (the store makes a truck load of cash from Magic, and they have that day, so we need to respect that), which seems to be most peoples preference for day unfortunately. Nick Legrand has been running the Kings of Win events out of here, and is willing to keep doing so - around his soccer schedule.

There is Hall of Hero's Campbeltown, the last remaining store in Western Sydney with tables after store closures elsewhere. its also a good venue, we can get any day we want without to much notice, but its a long way from the city and northernish metro locations. Traishy is right near this store and has offered to do some of the leg work to get it secured, and I'll run those events on the day.

There is some people that play northish? Macquarie uni top ryde based? I think they will be at Clash? I don't know anyone who is connected to these people or how to get them coming to events not in thier neighbourhood. If anyone knows or wants to connect with this group to be that person, that would be awesome - this area is where we need to build some networks.

At CanCon I had a chat to Nick - and we were coming up with a rough plan - that if you guys seem interested we can try and lock some dates in. Essentially, we want to try and get some events going with somewhere between 12-20 people initially, and build from there.

So given we know Clash of the Titans in Feb - everyone get there, and see what some of the other players want as well - but as a rough guide:-We run a 1 dayer in March, city based - Sunday if we can but may have to be Sat - prob need to cap it just in case if Sunday.-We take April off for Easter into Anzac day, school holidays and Briscon (Qld)-We run a 1 dayer in May, Campbeltown based. Again prob Sunday.-We run a 1 dayer in June, City? unless someone wants to try and run something out Top Ryde way?-July will have ConVic early (VIC) and late July was when we had SGC last year. There are some issues with securing the venue, Nick is on that. That may run somewhere around July/August, maybe even September, its supposed to be Sydney's premier 2 day event, so to speak.-We have a 1 dayer somewhere in Sydney in July/August not too close to that event if it runs. prob Campbeltown again.-October - it has MOAB - which didn't get off the ground this year, but with some help we may be able to get that up if people are interested (I personally find that long weekend hard, but others might be fine). We then have Newcastle Castle Assault at the end of October - this also could potentially be the NSW 2 day event if SGC doesn't get off the ground. But either way, once October is done, Nov might get a 1 dayer but by this time people start getting really busy on weekends, and its pretty hard to put an event on from this point onwards.

Does this sounds like a plan that can cater for us all in Sydney - and work for you guys? the events outside of SGC/Castle Assault would only be 1 day 4 game events, so wont rob too many brownie points to make?

If any of you have any ideas, feedback or suggestions, please throw them up now, so we can cater for as many of you all as possible. I'm thinking most of these events we just run super cheap - like $10, so its not to much to coax garage gamers in, as once they start attending, we can hopefully get them addicted!

Posted by: marius Feb 1 2017, 10:52 AM

I like the idea of 1 day events. Can I also make a consideration for 1 day 3 game events? Having what is basically an 8 hour or work day (including travel) away from the family is a lot easier to swing than 10+ hours. I know it might not seem like a lot but that actually makes a pretty significant difference to me.

I am pretty unlikely to attend much given other things going on in life, but the 1 day stuff (and city based) is the most likely for me.

Posted by: Wedgetail Feb 1 2017, 11:32 AM

For Canberra people I ~think~ campbelltown would be the preferred venue? I know I could get there easier than all the way into the city.

Posted by: BennyH Feb 1 2017, 11:39 AM

QUOTE(marius @ Feb 1 2017, 11:52 AM)

I like the idea of 1 day events. Can I also make a consideration for 1 day 3 game events? Having what is basically an 8 hour or work day (including travel) away from the family is a lot easier to swing than 10+ hours. I know it might not seem like a lot but that actually makes a pretty significant difference to me.

I'm finding this is the preference in Newcastle as well, slightly more relaxed 3 than a more full on 4.

Posted by: Boothy Baby Feb 1 2017, 12:23 PM

From my quick trip to Sydney it reminded me more of a UK city than anywhere else I have visited in Australia. As such maybe it would be worth asking some of the UK organisers what really helps them out with their events. Since Sydney is such a pain to drive around then having venues with good public transport links (and compatible start/finish times) is probably a big deal.

It sounds like you are doing it already, but spreading events out so that all individual gaming groups have an event that’s easy to get to is a good idea…..so long as most of the people within easy striking distance will show up, that then helps incentivise those longer travel times.

To this end I like to get in contact with as many of the potential players before setting the date for an event and make sure as many people as possible are available. Over here we have seen swings in attendance of about 33% purely based on luck of availability, and moving an event one week one way or the other would have made a big difference. When we are dealing with 10-20 possible attendees having a date that lands when someone has an anniversary, someone else has kids on holiday, a couple have exams, and another is away for work….suddenly a 15 player event drops to 10ish.